MADRID (RNS) – Over 1.2 million people gathered at Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid on Sunday (June 7) to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo XIV celebrating Mass and leading the Corpus Christi procession, a major celebration where the Eucharist is paraded through the streets.

During his homily, Leo urged Catholics to “remember” and “return” to their faith, using the procession as an opportunity to renew Catholic beliefs in a secularized Spain.

“The task of Spain,” Leo said, is “to ensure that the religiosity which has shaped and defined this country for centuries is not a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today.”

Embracing faith means drawing away from “our selfishness and indifference, of a comfortable, private faith,” he continued. Only this way can Catholics become “builders of a new world,” he said.

The event occurred on the second day of the pope’s week-long trip to Spain, the first major European destination of his pontificate.

While the majority of Spaniards still identify as Catholic, only about 17 to 19% are practicing, while the number of those who identify as nonreligious is growing, according to surveys by the Spanish polling Center for Sociological Research.

But piety in Spain may be witnessing a resurgence. “Corpus Christi and Holy Week continue to be something in Spain that is growing, not declining,” said Sara de la Torre, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Madrid.

Holy Week processions surrounding Easter continue to draw crowds, with the city of Malaga counting over 2.6 million visitors in 2025 — almost a 23% increase over 2023. Corpus Christi celebrations remain more local, with Toledo hosting the country’s most symbolic celebrations.

“It is always said that (religious processions are) a bit folkloric, a bit formal, a bit cultural, but that the substance is missing. But this is not entirely true,” said José Restán, editorial director of the Spanish Catholic radio station COPE. “Popular religiosity, especially in the south, is a bulwark against secularization.”

Leo celebrated Mass in front of the one of the largest crowds of his pontificate in a square in the political, cultural and economic center of Madrid. A large choir accompanied the celebration. During the procession, a group of priests, lay people, children who had their first communion this year, and all the cardinals and bishops in attendance, accompanied Leo and the Eucharist.

A carpet of flowers paved the entire path of the procession and bystanders threw petals as it passed by.

“Here in Madrid, as in many other parts of Spain, Corpus Christi is more than just another celebration on the liturgical calendar,” the pope said in his homily. “It is a way of returning to the heart of the faith to renew our love and fidelity to God.”

He said that the procession “is not an exhibition, a remnant of folklore or a simple display of beauty,” but an opportunity to “remember precisely so as not to forget who the Lord is” and to “return to him with sincere love.”

For de la Torre, the papal celebration represented something “historic” and the most important stop in the pope’s visit to Spain. “We are aware that the secularized society in which we find ourselves receives the pope perhaps as someone who can confirm people in the faith and encourage others,” she said.